Things You Need to Know Today: Key Plaza in Augusta up for Sale?

Key Plaza in downtown Augusta is scheduled to go to auction Feb. 1. According to centrlamaine.com the city is hoping the current owners will be able to keep it or at least buy it back at auction. The building has mostly state in office space it leases.

Augusta would like to make some electricity from methane produced by decomposing garbage at Hatch Hill landfill. According to centralmaine.com they want CMP to put in some upgraded lines to the landfill needs for equipment and that would allow Augusta to explore this idea.

From the Associated Press:

Officials have released the name of the man wanted for the Skowhegan Rite Aid pharmacy robbery. According to centralmaine.com they are looking for 26 year old Damien Towers of Skowhegan. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Katelyn Nichols at 474-6908.

Gov. Paul LePage is asking Republican lawmakers to "fix bayonets" and battle for his final two-year budget proposal. He said he wanted Republicans to support his efforts to broaden the sales tax, dial back the income tax, tighten health care coverage for low-income Mainers and overhaul education.He said he'll hit the road to get Mainers to demand that their representatives pass his budget.

Sen. Angus King is renewing its efforts to get protections for the country's energy infrastructure against cyber-attacks. King and another lawmaker want to pass the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act. They say the proposal seeks to examine ways to defend the energy grid.

Sen. Angus King of Maine is among those who support amending the law to allow the retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis to serve as defense secretary under President-elect Donald Trump. King said he supports a one-time exception to current law that requires a former member of the military to be out of active duty service for at least seven years to serve as defense secretary. There's been only one previous exception, in 1950.

A pair of senators including Maine's Sen. Angus King is renewing its efforts to get protections for the country's energy infrastructure against cyber-attacks. King, an independent, is partnering with Idaho Republican Sen. Jim Risch on the push to pass the Securing Energy Infrastructure Act. They say the proposal seeks to examine ways to defend the energy grid.

The son of a Maine lawmaker has been charged with having meth and operating under the influence. Police say they arrested 25-year-old Dylan Volk in Scarborough early Sunday after smelling alcohol on him and conducting a field sobriety test. Police say they also found a straw and a rock-like substance in a headphone case. Tests showed the substance was methamphetamine. Volk is the son of Republican state Sen. Amy Volk.

A new report says Maine taxpayers may not benefit from plans to invest up to $75 million a year into storing natural gas in liquid form.

President Barack Obama says, "The work of democracy has always been hard, contentious and sometimes bloody," but he says his faith in America has only been strengthened over the past eight years. Obama delivered a farewell address to the nation Tuesday night in Chicago. In less than two weeks, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the new president and Obama will become a private citizen.

President-elect Donald Trump is calling it a political witch hunt. When top intelligence officials met last week with Trump, they told him about an unsubstantiated report that Russia had compromising personal and financial information about him. That's according to a U.S. official who asked to remain anonymous. Shortly after news reports were published about the briefing, Trump tweeted: "FAKE NEWS - A TOTAL POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!"

The United Arab Emirates says Tuesday's bombing in Kandahar, Afghanistan, killed five of its diplomats. Afghan officials say the blast also wounded 12 people, including Kandahar's governor. The Taliban issued a statement Wednesday, saying they did not plant the bomb, but that they did carry out attacks earlier in the day in Kabul, which killed at least 38 people and wounded dozens.